Agricultural biotechnology and regulatory innovation in India

Freeman, Julia; Satterfield, Terre; Kandlikar, Milind

doi:10.3152/030234211x12924093660318

Cited by 8 publications

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“…At issue has been the role of governance and the implications of regulation in mediating the debates and managing the associated risks. Various states operating at multiple scales are responding to the opportunities and threats presented by GMOs and the intersection of these dynamics with broader economic, social, and environmental agendas (Freeman et al, 2011;Twardowski and Małyska, 2015;Uchtmann and Nelson, 2000). Although these processes have been anything but linear, often incorporating the shifting positions of industry, the research community, environmental groups, regulators, among others, several authors contend that regulatory measures, often introduced as a response to public and interest group discontent, have generally reduced industrial uncertainty and promoted biotechnology development (Cocklin et al, 2008;Hansen, 2001) by providing billions of dollars in state-provided financial incentives (e.g., tax relief, funding) concentrated among private sector investors and designed to spur innovation (Moretti and Wilson, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The State, Civil Society, and the Canadian Agricultural Biotechnology Industry

Bridi

2016

Human Geography

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There are complex ways in which agricultural production, biotechnology, and the interventions by the state and civil society are interconnected. Advanced capitalism is characterized by a general (albeit temporally and spatially uneven) tendency towards technological change in its various forms. In contemporary times, biotechnology is one such form. As with all forms of technology, its emergence is a contradictory process. As an industrial phenomenon, biotechnology may be seen as an opportunity for individual segments of the capitalist class for accumulation of exchange value as well as a capitalist growth strategy at the sectoral level. Its emergence is indicative of an instantiated counter-struggle on the part of specific capitals against impinging price competition in the agricultural industry and, at a macro-scale, of the intensifying decline in the rate of profit in advanced industrial economies. The emergence and utilization of biotechnology both as a means of production and as a means of increasing (monopolistic) profit is part of a wider process of market-oriented reforms in the agrarian sector occurring at national and international scales. However, interventions on the part of the state which generally tends to play an enabling role, and of civil society whose aim is to at least partly resist the expansion of the market for biotechnology, have not ceased, so the outcomes of market-based restructuring in general and the use and consequences of biotechnology in particular are anything but automatic. The argument is illustrated with empirical evidence from the development, adoption, and production of agricultural biotechnology in Canada.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The State, Civil Society, and the Canadian Agricultural Biotechnology Industry

Bridi

2016

Human Geography

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“…While regulators were charged with the safe release of GE seeds that had properly moved through India's three-tiered regulatory regime (Freeman, Satterfield and Kandlikar 2011), farmers were driven by the urgent need for arresting the loss of their crop. As noted above, the regulatory regime imagined farmers planting a border of non-Bt cotton around the perimeter of the crop; a biosafety precaution intended to reduce the risk of building resistance to Bt among bollworm (GEAC undated).…”

Section: Unintended Effects and Unexpected Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do "imagined farmers" negotiate actual risks? Biosafety trade-offs in Bt cotton production in Andhra Pradesh, India

Freeman

2012

Journal of Political Ecology

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India's encounter with genetically engineered Bt cotton has been a contested one, and one that has rarely conformed to expectations. I argue that two primary vantage points on the question of agricultural biotechnology – those advocating the "biosafe use" of Bt cotton or those who insist it involves "inherent problems" - frequently anticipate an "imagined farmer" in incomplete and sometimes plainly incorrect ways. Thus, there is more to the Bt cotton debate than has been considered to date. Drawing from qualitative interviews with cotton farmers in two regions of Andhra Pradesh, I call attention to the unintended effects of widespread Bt cotton cultivation and debates missing from this controversy. Misconstrual of the "imagined farmer" has edged out civil society's acknowledgement of farmers' negotiation of the (immediate and physical) risks of pesticide use as contrasted with those (more abstracted and unknown) of genetically engineered seed. Bt cotton's advocates, on the other hand, seldom address the unintended effects of its widespread use, including potentially reduced labor opportunities for the most marginal rural laborers. In conclusion, I urge a more expansive assessment of the trade-offs between risks and benefits that farmers make regarding Bt cotton, alongside a closer look at the nuances of their decision-making. Framing agribiotech risk as a matter of manageable (or inherently problematic) "biosafety" does not resonate with farmers using a broader concept of health and environmental safety threatened by heavy pesticide usage.Keywords: Bt cotton, political ecology, genetic engineering risk, pesticides, India

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Genetically Modified Crops in India: Politics, Policies, and Political Economy

Singh

2021

Policy Issues in Genetically Modified Crops

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Agricultural biotechnology and regulatory innovation in India

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

The State, Civil Society, and the Canadian Agricultural Biotechnology Industry

The State, Civil Society, and the Canadian Agricultural Biotechnology Industry

How do "imagined farmers" negotiate actual risks? Biosafety trade-offs in Bt cotton production in Andhra Pradesh, India

Genetically Modified Crops in India: Politics, Policies, and Political Economy

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